Welp, this is my first tutorial, so if it doesn't seem clear say so and i'll try to fix it c:

So alot of people wanted to know how to make sword slashes like this >

There's probably a loooooooooooooooooot of ways to make stuff like that, where it starts off as a plain slash then it fades away. The two ways that i know of involve you leaving it as a gradient, and another where you convert it into a symbol. The gradient way i'm gonna use to show how to make a basic slash, the symbol way i'll use to do the thing that Patt did.

Gradient way:

Spoiler:

First thing's first, pick two sprites that you want to use. For the tut i'm gonna use these two:

After you've got the sprites you want to use, put them in two frames, the beginning slash you want in the first frame, and the ending pose in the second, which is kinda obvious so i won't screenshot that. Ok, so after you've got the frames the way you want them, make a layer above the one where you have the sprites which will be for the sword slash. In the frame above the first sprite, put a blank keyframe, then go to the second frame. Draw a flat line along the the blade, which will be the bottom of the slash, like so

Next, you go back to the first frame, which contains the beginning pose of the slash, and draw lines from each end of the base line to the tip of the sword, as seen here:

Press "V" or click on the selection tool on the top left panel in the tools section. Then make sure that the lines aren't selected, go over the line, then drag it so that it's curved to however you want it to be so that it looks like this:

Now that you have the basic outline, just select the paint bucket, pick the color you want, and paint the area in between the lines. Select the whole slash after that, go to the color selection for pencils, and select the square with a red line through the middle, as seen here:

That way, you have the slash you need c: go about five frames over and insert a keyframe, select the gradient that you have left and change the alpha setting under the paint bucket color picking thing to zero. it's right next to the square and red line, see:

Now it's time to shape tween it c: yeah, this is the purpose of shape tweening, it's like motion tweens for gradients and other things that aren't symbols. after you tween those frames, put a blank keyframe on the 6th frame and voila, you're done

Pretty Way with Symbols:

Spoiler:

follow the above tutorial until you get to the point with the paint bucket. After you've selected your color, go over to the library and above that it says "color mixer"

change the type to "linear" and you'll get what showed up on that last screenshot, cept with the colors black and white. if your character's facing right, then change the left block to whatever color you want the slash to be and set the alpha to 0%. then go to the right block and change it to the color you want, and then click inside your outline to get a cool looking slash. you can change how far the boxes are from the edge, i don't know how to put what it does into words, but you'll figure it out pretty easily.

right click on the gradient and click on "convert to symbol." after you do that, go down to the blend tool and set it to screen, add, whatever you want, then go a few frames over, make a keyframe, and change that it to alpha there and you'll get something like this:First Frame of attackLast Frame of attackthe circled part is where you change it to alphaafter that you just tween, and you're done

Hope this helped c: if you're not clear on something tell me and i'll try to clarify

@Patt wrote:One more tip, actually looks a lot better when it's a gradient. Also, with a bit of alpha and set blend mode.

(Side note: before anyone thinks that is an animation currently in the making, forget it. That is one of my older projects from like 2010.)

Dude, that looks nearly exactly alike from my Cross V.S. Zeke sword slashes O:Except, the sword slash seems more thinned out closer to the sword, whereas mine was the opposite, and it thinned out the farther away from the sword it got.